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REPUBLICAN CRISIS, 



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THE 

REPUBLICAN CRISIS: 

OR, AN 

RXPOSITION OP THE POLITICAL JESUITISM 

OF 

JAMES MADISON, 

President of the United States of America. 



BY AN OBSERVANT CITIZEN OF THE 
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 






ALEXANDRIA . 

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 



1812. 



THE 



REPUBLICAN CRISIS, &c. &c. 



Nations, like individuals, are liable to diseases 
of various kinds ; and all diseases are subject to a 
crisis, or critical moment, when a change must 
take place, either for restoration or dissolution : 
to such a state as this is the United States, at this 
truly awful moment, reduced, by the drivelling 
policy and imbecile judgment of a man, of whose 
talents and political integrity the good people of 
these states have formed a most erroneous esti- 
mate. It therefore behoves us to fathom to the 
bottom the depth of the abyss into which we have 
been drawn, and the source of the vortex which 
has involved us in so perilous a situation, that the 
weak contrivers of it are at a loss how to steer the 
vessel of state clear of the rocks and shoals in 
which their own imbecile policy and pernicious 



6 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

councils have entangled us, at the present tem- 
pestuous moment. Every observant member of 
the community must have perceived the crooked 
and weak policy of Mr. Madison's administration 
for some time past; more especially during the 
last and present sessions of congress. But to what 
an awful crisis are we reduced ! — How little do the 
patriots of our country seem to attend! — What, 
I would ask, in the name of common sense, is the 
cause of this apparent apathy in our patriotic citi- 
zens at so eventful a period as the present, but a 
false reliance on the supposed abilities and integ- 
rity of the man who now fills the presidential chair ? 
It therefore becomes the painful duty of the writer, 
who cannot possibly have a single sinister motive 
in so doing, to develop a scene of political tur- 
pitude and depravity over which he has long 
mourned in secret, and which has occasioned all 
our interior distractions, and exterior difficulties. 
The ears of many honest well meaning citizens 
will undoubtedly be shocked to hear the name of 
James Madison mentioned as the author of all the 
evils complained of; but the salvation of the re- 
public sternly requires it, and the following just 




. \. i , ' ■ ELOCO/1T 




THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 7 

and faithful sketch of his political conduct, from 
the moment of his appointment to the office of se- 
cretary of state of the United States to the pre- 
sent day, must convince every impartial citizen 
who feels the least interest in the welfare of this 
country, and in the perpetuation of its most happy 
system of government, that the removal of Mr. 
Madison from the helm of state, and the substi- 
tution of a more able, honest, and efficient pilot, 
can alone save the republic from destruction, and 
the nation from ruin ! 

That Mr. Madison was never a sincere friend to 
the republican cause, can be evidenced from nume- 
rous facts ; and facts are stubborn things, unfortu- 
nately for this pseudo -republican ! That he ever 
gained credit with the republican party, as a person 
attached to their principles, has been always a mat- 
ter of surprise, and often of disgust, to the writer. 
Let us see then upon what this gentleman founds 
his claim to their confidence. 

From being the bosom friend of the late Alex- 
ander Hamilton, and concurring in most of his po- 



8 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

liticai views, a small aberration therefrom was 
too lightly received by the nation as an evidence of 
a more patriotic feeling, than his former coinci- 
dence with the political views of that gentleman 
seemed to evince : this was his opposition to the 
establishment of the Bank of the United States, 
some twenty years ago. But what has he done for 
the promotion of republican principles, or the con- 
servation of the great whig cause of our country, 
daring the long interval which elapsed between 
that important era, and the period of Mr. Jeffer- 
son's election to the presidency ? The whole sum 
of his services in the cause amounted to his writing 
a pamphlet, showing the unconstitutionality of 
some acts of the general government, in unison 
with his opposition to the banking system ; and if 
he had ever any real bias toward the republican 
interest, it was completely annihilated in his mind 
by his intermarriage with Mrs. Pain, a lady of 
tory principles, now Mrs. Madison : such is the 
effect of female influence on men of weak minds ! 
What was his conduct on the first great occasion 
which presented itself for the display of patriotism, 
and the exercise of principle, subsequent to the 




MZ.^Jkasfc**. 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 9 

establishment of the federal constitution? During 
the administration of Mr. Adams, which has been 
emphatically denominated the reign of terror, from 
the persecutions which were set on foot against 
the republican party, by the faction which then 
governed the country, and their proscription of 
the republican principle itself, Mr. Madison cau- 
tiously avoided all interference, and completely 
abstracted himself from public life, by retiring to 
the mountains of Virginia, where he remained in 
quiet, until the storm which had raged against the 
system of republican government was past, and the 
legitimate sons of Columbia had triumphantly pla- 
ced their favourite sage, Mr. Jefferson, in the pre- 
sidential chair. This great man, with all his per- 
spicacity and political wisdom, was not able to fa- 
thom the Jesuitical disposition of Mr. Madison, 
who had imposed upon his honest credulity by 
feigned professions of patriotism and republican 
virtue, insomuch, that the first act of Mr. Jefferson, 
after his inauguration, was the appointment of 
Mr. Madison to the highest office under the go- 
vernment, namely, that of secretary of state of the 
United States. It becomes now our business to 

B 



10 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

examine into his conduct in that important station, 
and to trace his career thence to the presidency, 
and down to the present era. 

Mr. Madison, thus brought forth from his safe 
retreat, on commencing his ministerial functions, 
found all the offices under the general government 
exclusively in the possession of federalists and to- 
nes. But notwithstanding that the nation had au- 
dibly declared, that a change was absolutely neces- 
sary, not merely in the high elective offices of the 
government, but also of those in its disposal, yet, 
in defiance of the policy which both duty and in- 
terest required, that a large portion of the republi- 
cans should participate in the minor, as well as the 
greater offices, Mr. Madison suffered the incum- 
bents which he found in office to remain there, and 
took some of them into his most intimate confi- 
dence, particularly those who had avowed them- 
selves the most hostile to the republican interest, 
through whom all the wise policy and plans of 
Mr. Jefferson, for the preservation of our national 
rights, and the perpetuation of free republican go- 
vernment, in these United States, were betrayed 










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^/A^*^r? 



ry 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 11 

to the most inveterate enemies of both ! — It is suf- 
ficient to mention Mr. Jacob Wagner, whom he 
retained as chief clerk in the office of secretary of 
state, which afforded him free access to all the se- 
crets of the administration. Let it be recollected, 
that this man was, and always has been, the bosom 
friend of the noted Timothy Pickering, chief of 
the terrorist administration ; and that he was then 
in close correspondence with him, whilst Mr. Ma- 
dison made him the repository of the full confi- 
dence of the administration. Hence the abortion 
of it's wisest measures. And at this moment Mr. 
Wagner is proprietor of a paper in Baltimore, enti- 
tled The Federal Republican, which displays more 
virulent hostility to our national rights, and to the 
republican cause, than all the tory papers in the 
United States collectively. 

Mr. Madison, not content with retaininor such 
men as Wagner in office ; as if to display an open 
hostility to the republican cause, selected two of its 
most rancorous enemies as additional clerks in the 
office : one of whom was Mr. Forest, whose mid- 
night appointment to the magistracy of the city of 



12 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

Washington by Mr. Adams, on the eve of his go- 
ing out of office, was rejected by Mr. Jefferson, 
on account of his known hostility to the republi- 
can cause. The other of these newly adopted 
favourites, in virtue of their hostility to republican 
principles, was Mr. J. C. King, of whom and his 
colleague anon. 

At this time the clerks in the office of the secre- 
tary of state were all violent federalists, with one 
solitary exception, and Mr. Madison chose for his 
intimate associates the most strenuous oppugners 
of the republican cause from amongst them : such 
were Jacob Wagner, Richard Forest, and Doctor 
Thornton ! In fact, his whole deportment towards 
the republicans in the District of Columbia was 
generally so repulsive, that it was obvious his pre- 
judices were against that party, and his predilec- 
tions in favour of the federalists and tories: and 
notwithstanding his apparent acquiescence in the 
great and leading measures of Mr. Jefferson, whom 
he early conceived the desire of supplanting in the 
government, he often secretly counteracted them 
by an ambi-dexterous policy, which frequently 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. ] 3 

defeated the best conceived measures of that able 
statesman, and tended to prolong and aggravate 
our national difficulties. The early part of Mr. 
Jefferson's administration was marked by the 
strong features of his great mind ; and, until 
thwarted by the counter current of his chief 
secretary's cunning contrivances, might be said to 
be in the full tide of successful efficacy. Such 
was that cardinal measure of his administration, the 
embargo ; when an extraordinary and equally un- 
exampled stroke of perfidy or weakness on the 
part of the secretary of state, and his colleague, 
the secretary of the treasury, defeated its great 
effect, and rendered our government and country 
the sport of the wily cabinet of St. James, which 
found, in the weakness or wickedness of our own 
ministers, an easy method of averting its powerful 
effects, at a moment when the wisdom of that great 
measure began to be manifest, by its heavy pres- 
sure upon the commerce of Great-Britain, and up- 
on the wants of her people. — The necessaries of 
life become scarce, and famine staring them in the 
face, supplies of the materials for navigation and 
manufactures cut off, their European commerce 



14 THK REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

annihilated, and that with America wholly sus- 
pended—this order of things naturally produced 
great agitation in the public mind, and tumultu- 
ous assemblages of the people began to abound 
throughout the kingdom, so as to become very 
alarming to the government, and induce a belief 
that they would be compelled, by our firm perse- 
verance in the judicious attitude we had assumed, 
to revoke their unjust orders in council, and change 
their hostile measures towards us, for those of a 
more amicable character. It is not denied that so 
bold and novel a measure as a long continued em- 
bargo, in a commercial country like ours, was ne- 
cessarily attended with some inconvenience to 
ourselves; but there cannot be a doubt, that the 
patriotism and good sense of our citizens would 
have reconciled them to the temporary privations 
which they sufFered, until the measure which oc- 
casioned them had produced the desired effect : 
more especially, as they well knew that these in- 
conveniences were of light consideration contrast- 
ed with the evils attendant on war, or the more 
direful alternative of national disgrace and thral- 
dom, in the surrender of those rights and that in- 




'?>M 



i 



. ( . i . 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 15 

dependence which our fathers had sealed with 
their blood : and, notwithstanding that the machi- 
nations of the emissaries of Great-Britain had pro- 
duced symptoms of disaffection in some of the east- 
ern states, I am persuaded there was sufficient vir- 
tue and patriotism amongst the great body of the 
citizens of these states, to have crushed any traitor- 
ous attempts of the British faction, had they dared 
to proceed to overt acts of opposition to the mea- 
sures of the general government ; a fact which is 
sufficiently exemplified by the correspondence of 
the spy Henry, with the governor general of the 
Canadas. At this critical conjuncture of our re- 
lations with Great-Britain, and when it had been^ 
ascertained that Mr. Madison's intrigues for the 
succession to the next presidency had succeeded, 
contrary to every principle of public duty and 
propriety, as well as to the dictates of honour and 
sound policy, did he authorize Mr. Gallatin, the 
secretary of the treasury, whom he had determin- 
ed to retain in office under his own administration, 
to open a secret negotiation with Mr. Erskine, the 
British minister, which should be ratified immedi- 
ately after his inauguration ! The terms of the 



16 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

compromise which this injudicious procedure led 
to, have been long since exposed to public view, 
by the publication of the famous documents laid 
before the British parliament, containing the cor- 
respondence between Mr. Canning, the British 
secretary of state for foreign affairs, and Mr. Ers- 
kine, the envoy of that government to the United 
States ; by which it has been seen, that an aban- 
donment of some of our essential rights was pro- 
posed, together with a relinquishment of the em- 
bargo system. At this conference, an odious con- 
trast was drawn between the political characters of 
the then president and the president elect. Mr. 
Jefferson Avas represented as actuated by unjust 
prejudices and prepossessions; and as being en- 
tirely hostile to England, and devoted to France ; 
whilst Mr. Madison was portrayed as the admirer 
of the British political system, partial to England, 
and attached to her interests, and at the same time 
inimical to those of France. To evince the sin- 
cerity of those assurances, the faith of Mr. Madi- 
son was pledged that he would, as one of the first 
measures of his administration, cause an act of 
congress to be passed, placing the two great belli- 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 17* 

gerents on an equal footing with respect to their 
relations with the United States. (It will be re- 
collected that at that time the ships of Great-Bri- 
tain were interdicted from our ports and harbours, 
and those of France were permitted to enter them.) 
To the weakness and wickedness of this wretched, 
bungling transaction, we owe most of the national 
evils which we have endured ever since, and most 
certainly the prolongation of them all. Let us 
therefore examine the policy and justness of it as 
it respects our relations with these contending 
powers, at that period. 

It is admitted that France had committed many 
injurious acts upon our commerce, and her Berlin 
and Milan decrees were gross violations of our 
neutral rights, although she avowed the excep- 
tion of their operation against us, in the event 
of our defending these rights against the aggres- 
sions of her enemy. Great-Britain, on the other 
hand, had not only invaded our neutral rights, but 
her general conduct towards us was atrocious in 
the extreme. She not only captured our mer- 
chant vessels upon the high seas, but, in the 

c 



18 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

mouths of our own ports and harbours, she inter- 
rupted our lawful coasting tra H e, impressed our 
seamen, and incarcerated them in her floating pri- 
sons, there compelling them to aid in the diabolical 
work of murdering and plundering their own fel- 
low citizens ; and when their feelings revolted at 
such enormities, flogging them almost to death for 
refusing to obey their arbitrary orders. To crown 
all her other atrocities, Great-Britain most grossly 
insulted our government, and outraged the feelings 
of the nation, by a perfidious and murderous at- 
tack upon one of our frigates in the bosom of our 
own waters, while peaceably proceeding on a pub- 
lic mission ! — Several of our fellow citizens were 
butchered in cold blood by this unexpected act of 
violence, and others of them kidnapped to abide a 
more ignominious fate, by a mock trial for pretend- 
ed desertion. 

Such was our situation in regard to France and 
Great-Britain at the moment when Mr. Madison 
procured the passing of the act for placing these 
powers on a footing in their relations with the 
United States. It may be seen, by recurring to 



A 













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B Rocers. Print* 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. J 9 

the debates in congress on that bill, that the mem- 
bers could not comprehend its meaning, or see in- 
to the propriety of the measure ; and it was ulti- 
mately passed with reluctance, merely through 
executive influence. 

As soon as it was known in France, that En<*- 
land and that country were placed on a footing 
in their relations with the United States, the im- 
petuosity of Bonaparte's temper hurried him into 
the infamous Rambouillet decree, by which he sei- 
zed and confiscated all the property of our citi- 
zens which he could find on the continent of Eu- 
rope, whilst his cruisers were set loose upon our 
defenceless commerce on the ocean ; to capture, 
burn, sink, and destroy all our vessels which ieli 
in their way, and carry our useful and industrious 
seamen into port, to be assigned to the prisons of 
France ! Meanwhile the British cabinet, who had 
instructed their minister Erskine to patch up an 
accommodation with Mr. Madison on his own 
terms, with a view to violate it when their object 
should be effected, finding themselves relieved 
from the pressure of the embargo, and that they 



20 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

had effected another purpose not less consonant 
with their views and wishes, namely, that of exci- 
ting against ns the renewed hostility of France ; 
did not hesitate to disavow the arrangement en- 
tered into between their minister and this govern- 
ment ! It is remarkable in this perfidious transac- 
tion, that they sent over two sets of instructions to 
Mr. Ersldne, to be made use of as circumstances 
might require: the one clear, full, and decisive; 
and the other ambiguous, and professedly doubt- 
ing the sincerity of the secret overtures, over the 
weakness of which they rejoiced, and determined 
to triumph. Thus was our lawful commerce ex- 
posed to the ravages of a piratical warfare, carried 
on against our neutral rights with unrelenting fe- 
rocity by the belligerent powers ; and this through 
the weakness and folly of our own government. 
To account for such a conduct on the part of Mr. 
Madison, a superficial observer must be puzzled, 
and even those of more perspicacity, who are pla- 
ced at a distance from the scene of action, must 
find themselves at a loss to decipher the springs 
and motives of so extraordinary a proceeding. To 
find a clew to the real source of this weak and 







///un^a^/ JM^cJ^t 




THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 21 

crooked policy, we must look back to an impor- 
tant period of our history, which, at the first blush, 
may seem to have no connexion with the present 
subject ; but will be found, in the sequel, to have 
a particular and direct bearing on it. The period 
which I allude to is that of the convention of the 
United States, held in 1787, which framed our 
present federal constitution, and of which Mr. 
Madison was a member. 

It will be recollected that the plan of a general 
government proposed to the convention by the 
state of Virginia, was not a federal, but that of a 
consolidated union, in which the distinction of 
states should be nearly abolished, and their sove- 
reignty annihilated. This plan Mr. Madison 
warmly supported by every argument which his 
ingenuity could suggest ; and in the course of the 
debates of the convention he strenuously advoca- 
ted a proposition of Mr. Pinckney from South- 
Carolina, that the national legislature should have 
the power of putting a negative on all laws passed 
by the state legislatures, which the general go- 
vernment should disapprove of, and insisted that 



22 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

this power was absolutely necessary. He also de- 
clared that the senate of the national legislature 
could not be too strong, as he considered it a 
check on democracy ; and the longer the senators 
remained in office the better it would be for the 
stability and permanency of the government : he 
denied that the states ever possessed the right of 
sovereignty, but were mere corporations, having 
the power to make by-laws, and that they ought 
to be still more under the control of the general 
government than they had been under that of the 
king of Great-Britain. Such were Mr. Madison's 
ideas then of the form of government most be- 
fitting this country; and though he was obliged 
to yield to the will of the majority in the adoption 
of the federal constitution, yet he never lost sight 
of his favourite scheme, which revived with the 
prospect of his being placed at the head of the ge- 
neral government, and as soon as his election took 
place, he conceived the chimerical project of erect- 
ing a third party, on the ruins of both the repub- 
lican and federal parties, which should fraternize 
with the British, who would become his auxilia- 
ries in carrying into execution his contempla- 



21 




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6^0*^-1 ^^C 6i^^i 6/^- 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 23 

ted plan of new modelling the government. He 
had another motive, however, which, though of 
minor consideration, would of itself have indu- 
ced him to engage in this intrigue with the British 
minister : this was the desire of robbing Mr. Jeffer- 
son of the credit of having compelled the British 
to change their hostile policy towards us, and with- 
draw their unjust and injurious orders in council ; 
as the disclosure of his secret purposes to the Bri- 
tish minister, would at once prevent any accommo- 
dation with Mr. Jefferson, whose sentiments were 
represented by his own ministers to be so hostile 
to Great Britain, and partial to her enemy : thus 
prolonging our national sufferings, through a jea- 
lous and contracted temperament of mind, which 
could not brook the splendour of such a rival's 
transcendent talents. He therefore commenced 
his operations by throwing himself into the arms 
of the British minister, in the manner we have 
seen ; and soon after his being initiated into power, 
his project of forming a third party began to deve- 
lop itself, by the activity of his friends and emisa- 
lies disseminating discourses through the District 
of Columbia, in which he was represented as dif- 



24 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

fering widely in character and policy from Mr. 
Jefferson ; for that he was opposed to party spirit 
(meaning the republican party) and was not biased 
by any prepossessions in favour of France ; but, 
on the contrary, he thought the government of 
England was that alone from which we could ex- 
pect any justice, and that French influence had 
been too long prevalent in this country ; alluding 
to Mr. Jefferson's administration. In consequence 
of these intimations he was invited to a public din- 
ner at Alexandria, by the federal party, which he 
availed himself of with avidity ; and in the session 
of congress which was convened in the month of 
May next after his inauguration, the federal mem- 
bers warmly eulogized him, and called on the 
house of representatives for a vote of thanks, in 
which the republicans wisely refused to concur, 
and Mr. Madison was mortified by the negative. 
This did not, however, deter him from pursuing 
his third party scheme; he used every means to 
detach influential characters from the republican 
ranks, and with others gained over the grand sa- 
chem of the Tammany society so completely as 
to prevail on him to desert them on the ensuing 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 25 

anniversary of independence, and dine with the fed- 
eralists. At this time the war department was the 
only one of the public offices in which any republi- 
cans were employed, from whence they were soon 
excluded, at the instance of Mr. Madison ! These 
singular proceedings excited much alarm in the 
minds of the republican inhabitants of the District 
of Columbia, which induced them to hold an early 
meeting, wherein they determined on endeavouring 
to bring out the government either for or against 
them ; they accordingly resolved to give a public 
dinner on the fourth of July ensuing, to which the 
heads of departments should be invited ; and when 
their committee had made suitable arrangements 
for furnishing the dinner, endeavours were made 
by a gentleman high in office, one of Mr. Madi- 
son's most intimate friends and confidants, to in- 
timidate the person who had undertaken to fur- 
nish it, but without effect, and the dinner was of 
course given : the heads of departments, after long 
hesitation in giving an answer to the invitation, 
condescended to accept it, and accordingly ho- 
noured the company with their presence ; but not 
one of Mr. Madison's particular friends would at- 

D 



26 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

tend it ; on the contrary, they dined with the fed- 
eralists on the Capitol hill, openly avowing their 
contempt for the republicans. Every thing that 
savoured of the republican system became now 
unpopular at the presidential palace; and even 
the militia were deemed proper objects of discou- 
ragement ; for when he saw them marching towards 
his house on a grand muster day, with a view of 
paying him the homage of salutation which they 
had been accustomed to render his predecessor, he 
rode out in another direction to avoid them. How 
different was this from the urbanity and friendly 
condescensions of Mr. Jefferson, who would throw 
himself in their way on such occasions, and fre- 
quently invite the officers to partake of refresh- 
ments ; which had a great tendency to encourage 
military musters : on the contrary, Mr. Madison's 
repulsive conduct has operated so on the feelings 
of the gentlemen composing the militia of the dis- 
trict, that meetings of that body have been almost 
entirely discontinued. It seemed to be in every 
thing the wish of Mr. Madison to adopt a different 
policy from that of his predecessor in office, and 
he very often struck at the reputation of Mr. Jef- 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 2.7 

ferson by invidious means, with a view to break 
down his great popularity, and build his own on 
its ruins. Of this character was the insinuations of 
his emissaries respecting the late predominance of 
French influence ; his disbanding the militia which 
was drafted for immediate service, in Mr. Jeffer- 
son's administration ; his laying up the gun-boats, 
and putting the nation on a peace establishment, 
at a moment when the imbecility of his own mea- 
sures were calculated to prolong our sufferings by 
the encouragement and incitement of the aggres- 
sions of both the chief belligerent powers. Mr. 
Jefferson's humane system for meliorating the 
condition of the aborigines, by introducing the 
habits of civilized life amongst them, and turning 
their attention to the use of the plow and the loom, 
was given up, and those frequent invitations of 
their chiefs to the seat of the general government, 
which had such a tendency to attach them to (he 
interest of the United States, were no longer con- 
sidered a necessary part of the policy of the admin- 
istration. The consequence of this departure from 
so judicious a system of policy towards the savage 
inhabitants of our frontiers, has been their estrange- 



28 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

ment from vis by the arts of the British, who have 
contrived to convert them into enemies from hav- 
ing been our friends, as the recent catastrophe of 
Tippacanoe too fatally attests. On the contrary, 
Mr. Jefferson's conciliatory conduct was calculated 
to flatter their pride, and the kind treatment of 
their chiefs, when his guests, had a salutary effect 
in exciting their friendship, and attaching them to 
our government, as their natural benefactor. 
Amongst the many traits of imbecility in the cha- 
racter of Mr. Madison, those acts which are more 
immediately connected with the domestic system 
of state policy are not the least evincive of th% 
cast and texture of his mind. His system of fa- 
vouritism is too prominent to be overlooked, and 
a few instances will suffice to show the great in- 
fluence which Mrs. Madison exercises over him. 
Mr. Richard Forest, before mentioned, the major- 
domo of her household, was to be made a kind of 
semi-ambassador to the dey of Tunis, and to be 
allowed an outfit, a secretary of legation, and an 
adequate salary: he was accordingly nominated 
to the senate, but was rejected ; and, notwithstand- 
ing this repulse, he had the temerity to nominate 




■ 






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THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 29 

him a second time, and he was again rejected. Mr. 
I. C. King, another of the favourites, had asked 
leave of absence from Mr. Smith, when secretary 
of state, to go to Philadelphia for a short time ; 
but remaining there much longer than was request- 
ed or allowed, without any explanation of the 
cause of his extraordinary delay, his place was fill- 
ed by another person ; but soon after his return, 
when Mr. Munroe became secretary of state, he 
was obliged to yield to the solicitation of Mrs. 
Madison, and create a new place for Mr. King, as 
they dared not attempt to remove Mr. Colvin, 
who had been appointed by Mr. Smith to succeed 
Mr. King ; this Colvin having been editor of a pa- 
per in Washington, entitled the Monitor, in which 
he frequently inserted libellous paragraphs reflect- 
ing the grossest slanders on the character of that 
illustrious patriot, the late vice president of the 
United States, who acquired such immortal fame 
by the services rendered to his country during 
and since the revolutionary war. The popularity 
of this great and good man rendered him an object 
of the jealousy of president Madison, who was 
known to be the writer of those libels published 



M) THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS, 

by Mr. Colvin, against the venerable George Clin- 
ton, whose recent removal from works to rewards 
eternal in the heavens, has left his country to 
mourn the loss of one of her brightest ornaments, 
and most virtuous statesmen. The Mr. King, for 
whom Mr. Munroe was obliged to carve out a 
new appointment, is a man conspicuous for nothing 
but an adroitness at the card table, and a constant 
habit of low scurrilous abuse of republicanism ; 
qualifications best fitted to render him a favourite 
at court, and a welcome guest in the drawing- 
room. How different was the character of the 
late Doctor Dinsmore, whom Mr. Madison remov- 
ed from the war office on account of his politics. 
Possessed of an enlarged and highly cultivated 
mind, this amiable and enlightened man's whole 
deportment was dignified and benevolent, and his 
ardent zeal for the republican cause was so emi- 
nently displayed while he edited a paper which 
he formerly published in Alexandria, and latterly 
in Washington, so strongly recommended him to 
the friendship of Mr. Jefferson, that he conferred 
upon him the very place which was taken from 
him bv Mr. Madison on account of his unalterable 




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THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 31 

attachment to these principles. Another instance 
of Mr. Madison's favouritism, by which the pub- 
lic interests have been greatly sacrificed, is Mr. 
Tench Cox, the late Purveyor of the army, against 
whom serious charges of abuse of the public con- 
fidence were exhibited upon oath, but were never- 
theless overlooked by the president, without even 
an investigation, till congress passed an act to abol- 
ish the office, and create a new one under better 
regulations ; to this new office Mr. Madison 
thought proper to nominate his favourite, Mr. 
Tench Cox, notwithstanding that the principal ob- 
ject of congress in abolishing the old one, was to 
remove him from the public service, which it was 
the duty of Mr. Madison to have done when his 
improper conduct in office became manifest : but 
to the honour of the senate, they unanimously re- 
jected him. 

/ 
Among many other disqualifications which ren- 
der Mr. Madison ineligible for the high office of 
president of the United States, is his great want 
of discernment in the choice of suitable characters 
to fill the public offices. After an eight years in* 



32 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

iimate association in office with Mr. Robert Smith, 
he chose that gentleman for secretary of state on 
his own elevation to the presidency, yet in less than 
eighteen months he discovers that Mr. Smith is de- 
void of the capacity and talents necessary to quali- 
fy him for head of the department of state, if we 
are to credit the report of his friends and emissa- 
ries. The address of that gentleman to the people 
of the United States has already shown the Jesuiti- 
cal manner in which he endeavoured to get rid 
of him, without incurring the displeasure of his 
friends. The appointment of Dr. Eustis to the 
office of Secretary at war, is still a more glaring 
evidence of Mr. Madison's want of perspicacity, 
and discrimination of talent. It is notorious to the 
whole union, that Doctor Eustis is totally inade- 
quate to discharge the duties of that important 
office ; and Mr. Madison himself has given us the 
best evidence possible that he is not ignorant of 
this incapacity, by his late message to congress pro- 
posing to appoint two* assistant secretaries to that 
department ; which the congress wisely refused to 
sanction ; and yet he continues this man in office, 
after so public an acknowledgment of his inability 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 33 

to discharge its important functions. This is an- 
other instance of favouritism, whereby the national 
interests are jeopardized. 

The weak and jealous disposition of Mr. Madi- 
son would not suffer him to appoint men who are 
admired for their transcendent talents, to the great 
offices of the government, lest he should be sup- 
planted in the presidency; and his want of dis- 
crimination in selecting suitable characters from 
the class of citizens who are less conspicuous for 
great talents and abilities, has proved a sore evil 
to the nation. It is no way unlikely that his choice 
of such men is in a great degree influenced by the 
cunning contrivance of Mr. Gallatin, who has so 
great an ascendency over the president's mind, that 
he may be said to govern the union in his name, as 
the British ministry govern in the name of their 
king : and such men would be more likely to ac- 
quiesce in his purposes than those of greater abili- 
ties. 

Mr. Madison commenced his presidential career 
under the impression that the British ministry would 

W E 



34 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

coalesce in his plans of a third parly, and new mo- 
delling the constitution of the United States ; but 
to his great disappointment they disregarded his vi- 
sionary projects, and only took advantage of his 
weakness to promote their own purposes, as we 
have already seen. The rejection of his arrange- 
ment with Mr. Erskine so far disconcerted his 
views, that he was obliged to abandon his favourite 
plans, and again look to the republican party for 
support. Thus baffled in his favourite project, 
and this by the perfidy of his new friends and allies 
the British, Mr. Madison's weak mind was irritated 
to the highest pitch of resentment against them, 
and he determined to avenge himself upon them in 
the most summary way ! — He therefore (lies to the 
opposite extreme of attaching himself to France, 
with equal indiscretion, and issues his proclama- 
tion, declaring, that he had received satisfactory 
evidence of the revocation of the Berlin and Mi- 
lan decrees ; and placing France again on the most 
favoured footing in her relations with the United 
States, notwithstanding that it is too well ascer- 
tained, by every day's fatal experience, that these 
obnoxious decrees of France are still in full force, 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 35 

wiih some small degree of relaxation in the rigour 
of their operation against our commerce and neu- 
tral rights. It is to this weak and premature step 
that we are to attribute the prolongation of those 
aggravated wrongs which we have suffered from 
England; together with the imminent Hazard we 
are, at the present eventful moment, placed in, of 
being made parties to Napoleon's war of extermi- 
nation against Great Britain: and whilst we throw 
ourselves into the rapacious arms of the mammoth 
of the earth, we inevitably involve ourselves in 
the risk of being devoured by the great Leviathan 
of the sea ! What miserable policy ! Surely an im- 
partial neutrality, and a dignified attitude of self 
defence, maintained by wisdom and firmness in 
our national councils, would have preserved us 
from a predicament at once so humiliating and dis- 
astrous ! — Paternal spirit of the great Washington ! 
we invoke thee to arise and avert so dreadful a 
calamity from thy beloved country ! — May Hea- 
ven, the celestial asylum of thy blissful abode, a- 
vert it, and in mercy remove from our councils 
those weak and mischievous men who have thus 



3b THE REPUBLICAN CRISI!?. 

jeopardized our peace, our prosperity, and our 

safety. 

The whole tenour of Mr. Madison's administra- 
tion, from the fatal moment of its commencement 
to the present day, has exhibited such a scene of 
Jesuitical tergiversation, of futile expedients, and 
pusillanimous subterfuges, that it sickens the mind 
to dwell on them ; whilst the alarming deteriora- 
tion of our public concerns, by means of this dri- 
velling policy, ought to be sufficient to arouse the 
nation from the apathy into which we have been 
too long sinking, to a sense of the dangerous pre- 
dicament in which we are placed. Every one in- 
deed, seems to be sensible of the unfortunate re- 
sults of Mr. Madison's imbecile measures ; but few 
there are who take the trouble of investigating the 
true cause, which is, in one word, the incapacity of 
the man to direct the affairs of government, more 
especially at a period when the whole Avorld is in 
so convulsed a state as at the present awful crisis. 

Finding our affairs growing worse and worse, 
session after session of congress, by the inefficient 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 37 

cy of his measures, Mr. Madison at length be- 
comes apprehensive of the dissatisfaction of the 
people, and the consequent loss of a re-election to 
the presidency; he therefore concludes to call 
that body together before the usual time, and as- 
sume a tone of energy and determination, which 
no way characterised any former part of his ad- 
ministration. Accordingly, when the present ses- 
sion of congress commenced, Mr. Madison made 
them a communication on our national concerns, 
which, if it were sincere, would have much rer 
dounded to his credit: the committee of foreign 
relations, to whom this message was referred, re- 
garding it as an expression of the genuine senti- 
ments of the executive, and as a true representa- 
tion of the real state of our national affairs, con- 
ceived it to be their duty to report the absolute 
and pressing necessity of congress adopting more 
energetic measures, for the maintenance of our 
national rights, than had been yet pursued: but 
Mr. Madison, in his usual Jesuitical style of ter- 
giversation, endeavoured, by private unofficial 
means, to counteract this effect, and get them to 
pursue a half-way course of inefficient measures, 



38 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

as formerly : finding, however, that these under- 
hand intimations were disregarded, and that con- 
gress had voted for putting the nation in a warlike 
attitude, as recommended by the message, he con- 
trived another method, through the ingenuity of 
his premier, Mr. Gallatin, of paralizing the war 
spirit, which had began to diffuse itself through 
the nation with a degree of enthusiasm which 
did honour to the patriotic feelings of the people : 
this was Mr. Gallatin's war budget, which propo- 
sed the most odious and unpopular system of tax- 
ation that could be resorted to, and at once put a 
damper upon the ardour of the nation. Mr. Giles, 
in an admirable speech, which should be read by 
every citizen who wishes to understand the true 
state of our public concerns, so ably exposed the 
weakness and inefficiency of the measures of the 
executive, as totally to disconcert the cabinet, and 
drive them to resort to other subterfuges, of 
which the measure of the present embargo was 
one; this, in conjunction with Mr. Gallatin's sin- 
gular budget, had a tendency to federalize the 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 39 

great commercial states of New-York* and Mas- 
sachusetts ; a result calculated on, and equally de- 
sired by Mr. Madison ; for he found that his popu- 
larity with the republicans, both in and out of con- 
gress, was sinking to a very low ebb ; and he cal- 
culated, that by federalizing these states, and 
breaking down the northern influence, where he 
apprehended the republicans to be most opposed 
to him in sentiment, that those states which still 
remained republican, would be so alarmed as to 
cling together in support of his re-election, rather 



# The JN"ew-York House of Representatives consists, for the 
next year, of 

52 Republicans and 60 Federalists. 
The Senate 24 8 



76 68 

and as the electors of president are chosen by joint ballot, repub- 
lican electors, in favor of Mr. Clinton, are certain in that state ; 
notwithstanding the strong attempts from Washington to destroy, 
by dividing his party. 

The present legislature which nominated Mr. Clinton, consists 
of 95 republican members, of which four were absent from the 
meeting ; two from motives of delicacy, being officers of the gene- 
ral government, and two from indisposition. The 91 who were 
present were unanimous — a unanimity rare, and almost unprece- 
dented, and which appears to have been ordered by providence 
as an earnest of the success which is to follow. 



40 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

than hazard, by divisions, the elevation of a pro- 
fessed federalist to the important station of presi- 
dent of the United States. 

I hope, however, that I have so far pulled off the 
mask of this double faced Janus, that every impar- 
tial man can see the true features of his real cha- 
racter and policy ; and the destructive tendency of 
the measures of his administration, as it respects 
our most essential interests both at home and 
abroad. Should my humble efforts to save my 
country from impending ruin, and the great cause 
of republicanism from certain immolation at the 
shrine of a frensied ambition, prove successful, I 
shall deem myself the happy instrument of rescu- 
ing these states from foreign thraldom and dis- 
grace ; and the republic from so ruinous an infa- 
tuation as the re-election of so unfit a character as 
Mr. Madison, to hold any longer the reins of our 
government. 

But the late business of the nomination at 
Washington, may stagger the minds of some ho- 
nest republicans, as to the propriety of opposing it. 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 41 

I trust, however, that a candid statement of the 
circumstances which attended that transaction, 
will remove all doubt, and enable every true 
friend of the country and of the cause, to form a 
correct judgment as to the safest line to pursue. 
It has been shown above, that Mr. Madison, ap- 
prehensive of the desertion of the republican party, 
conceived the weak idea of superadding the pre- 
sent embargo upon Mr. Gallatin's designedly un- 
popular budget, in order to produce an effect that 
should federalize the great commercial states, and 
lessen the influence of the republicans in the quar- 
ter where he dreaded their opposition most, with 
a view to excite an alarm in favour of his own re- 
election, among those republicans whom he hoped 
would support him : thus displaying at once a de- 
pravity that would sacrifice every thing sacred to 
honour, to patriotism, and to prudence, for the 
thirst of power. Policy would have probably re- 
strained him from so barefaced an act of perfidy ; 
but that he began to despair of a nomination by a 
congressional caucus, from the tardiness of the 
members, and the actual opposition to his mea- 
sures, made by many of the most influential repub- 

F 



42 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

lican members of both houses. — It is believed that 
this tardiness of the members in holding a caucus 
for nominating a candidate to the presidency, was 
owing to the southern and western states, as well as 
those of Maryland and Massachusetts looking to 
that of New- York for a nomination, which would 
undoubtedly have taken place earlier than that at 
Washington, and of course have absolutely super- 
seded it, but for the accidental circumstance of a 
difference in opinion between the governor and 
the legislature of that state, on a local measure of 
state policy, which occasioned a prorogation, in 
order to give time for reflection and due consider- 
ation of that measure. This incidental occurrence 
inspired hopes in the breast of the president, and of 
his state juggler, that a caucus might be conjured 
up, by good manceuvering, which should nominate 
Mr. Madison ; and the wily Genevan lost no time 
in setting his engines at work about the capitol, in 
order to effect the desired object : it was now there- 
fore represented that no business of importance 
would come before congress until the arrival of 
the Hornet from France; an event which could 
not be expected sooner than the first of June, if 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 43 

then, and that the members might disperse, to visit 
their families, or pursue their pleasures, without a 
risk of injury to the public interest, till that period. 
Many active and influential members did accord- 
ingly ask, and obtain leave of absence till the first 
of June ; and some for the remainder of the session ! 
Congress thus thinned off, the precious moment 
was seized, before the return of the absent mem- 
bers should take place ; and a caucus was procured 
after tampering with many members of both hou- 
ses, and persuading them that no nomination 
would take place in the state of New- York (to 
which it was known they looked) and that it was 
necessary, from the unpleasant result of the recent 
elections in that state and Massachusetts, to appear 
unanimous in the nomination of Mr. Madison, as 
there were apprehensions entertained that there 
would be a powerful federal opposition. Thus 
the members were cajoled by mere management, 
to acquiesce reluctantly in a surreptitious nomina- 
tion : but when the news of the nomination from 
New- York reached the capitol at Washington, 
how did the members stare at each other with as- 
tonishment ; how vehemently did they express 



44 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS 

their regrets at what had taken place there ; and 
with what consternation were the folks at the pre- 
sidential palace seized, at beholding so unanimous 
a vote of the republican members of the important 
state of New- York, in favor of their own candidate 
It behooves us now to consider the merits and cha- 
racter of the gentleman whom that state has offer- 
ed for the national suffrages, at the ensuing presi- 
dential election, 

Mr. De Witt Clinton is the son of the respect- 
able General- James Clinton, the present Cincinna- 
ti^ of our country, and one of those revolutiona- 
ry heroes who fought our battles during the strug- 
gles for independence with unshaken zeal and 
fidelity; and the nephew of our late vice presi- 
dent, the venerated George Clinton, who was a 
still more conspicuous character in that glorious 
cause : having been not only an active general in 
the army, but governor of the state of New- York 
when the enemy had possession of her metropolis 
in the south, and hung upon her borders in the 
north j a situation the most arduous of any in the 
United States at that important era, in which he 



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THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 45 

acquitted himself so ably, both as a soldier and a 
statesman, as to have acquired never fading lau- 
rels, Avith the meed of his country's eternal grati- 
tude. 

Thus our present candidate for the high office 
of president of the United States, may be said to 
have been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, 
where his youthful breast was early inspired with 
the most exalted sense of patriotism and public 
virtue; and where the brightest example could 
not fail to emulate his ardent soul with the love of 
liberty, and of his country. With the advantages 
of a most liberal education, Mr. Clinton possesses 
an expansive and highly enlightened mind : hav- 
ing from the first attached himself to the great 
whig interest of his country, he is a confirmed re- 
publican in principle; and has been the uniform 
friend and promoter of the republican cause. An 
early, though modest display of great talents and 
strong powers of mind, drew towards him the at- 
tention of his native state, which regarded him as a 
citizen of great promise to the republic : the exer- 
tion^ of those talents and powers of mind, was soon 



46 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

called forth, by elections to the legislatures of 
both his own state, and of the general govern- 
ment, in which he acquitted himself in a manner 
fully answerable to the expectations of his constitu- 
ents. The brilliant speech he made in the senate 
of the United States, on the question of our right 
of deposit at New-Orleans, cannot be forgotten, 
from its force and energy, and the sound reasoning 
with which he maintained that right. Mr. Clinton 
has greatly contributed to promote the ascendan- 
cy of the republican interest in the state of New- 
York, and his party have not ceased to demon- 
strate their gratitude and high sense of his merits, 
for he has been frequently called to the most im- 
portant offices of the state, being alternately a 
member of her councils, mayor of the city of New 
York, which office is invested with judicial func- 
tions, and is of course, of great importance to the 
lives, property, and morals of the people ; and at 
present he is lieutenant governor of that state. 
This gentleman's attachment to the interests of 
commerce, agriculture, and internal improve- 
ments is well known ; and the grand plan of unit- 
ing the great lakes with the Hudson river, by ca- 
nal navigation, in the promotion of which he has 



THE REPHBTJC AN CRTS13. 17 

so ardently engaged, must not only benefit his na- 
tive state, but our western country, in an eminent 
degree. 

The great satisfaction which Mr. Clinton has 
rendered, in the performance of his public duties, 
is a pledge of his future rectitude, and the able 
discharge of those trusts which his country may 
think fit to repose in him ; and the dignity of his 
deportment cannot fail to command respect, whilst 
the amenity of his manners, and the benevolence 
of his mind, must insure him the esteem of those 
who have the best opportunities of knowing his 
real character. As a statesman, Mr. Clinton's in- 
timate acquaintance with the law of nations, with 
civil polity, with diplomacy, with finance, and fiscal 
economy, and with state affairs generally, but 
more especially with the general interests of these 
United States, eminently qualify him for the chief 
seat in our national councils. With these endow- 
ments, Mr. Clinton possesses a vigour of mind and 
body, seldom united in one man, and his well 
known firmness and decision of character, at once 
point him out as the proper object of national suf- 
frage for the important ensuing election of presi- 



48 THE EEPTTRLTrAN CRTSTS. 

dent of the United States. The times call for 
such a choice, the situation of our country calls 
for it; and the vital interests of republican govern- 
ment demand it ; for wo betide us if Mr. Madison 
ascends the chair of state again ! I shall conclude 
this recommendation of Mr. Clinton, with the clo- 
sing observation of Mr. Robert Smith, our late 
secretary of state, in his address to the people ; in 
writing which, I am persuaded he must have had 
this great and enlightened statesman in his eye. 

" I may, I trust, be allowed to declare to my 
*' countrymen, as I most sincerely do, that to in- 
" sure the duration of the republican party, as well 
" as to preserve the honour and the best interests 
" of the United States, it has become indispensably 
" necessary that our president be a man of ener- 
getic mind, of enlarged and liberal views, of 
" temperate and dignified deportment, of honour- 
" able and manly feelings, and as efficient in main- 
w taining, as sagacious in discerning, the rights of 
" our much injured and insulted country !" 

Such a man is Mr. De Witt Clinton, to the cer- 
tain knowledge of the author. 



POSTSCRIPT. 

Since the foregoing was put to press, the decla- 
ration of war against England, by our government, 
has been published. An event which the author 
fondly hoped would have been averted at so un- 
propitious a moment, by the wisdom of the consti- 
tuted authorities of the nation: but alas! elec- 
tioneering intrigue proves to be paramount to eve- 
ry thing sacred, sage, and prudent ! I do not mean 
to be understood that I consider this declaration 
of war to be unjust. — Far from it. — I think it ought 
to have been made long since ; but we have let 
the proper time pass — when our treasury was over- 
flowing, our citizens unanimous to an unparalleled 
degree ; millions of British property in our hands, 
and the measure of our wrongs from British cupidi- 
ty and hostility full to the brim ; whilst the ag- 
gressions of France were comparatively light and 
small. I do therefore contend that this measure 
is highly inexpedient at this period, and under 



,00 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

existing circumstances, and that if the dire alterna- 
tive of an appeal to arms was necessary at the pre- 
sent eventful crisis, we had a choice of two evils, 
and might have made our election of that which, 
(in all human probability) would be productive of 
the least injury to ourselves. The late outrages 
of France, in sinking, burning, and plundering our 
vessels, and her general spoliations upon our com- 
merce, fully justified our declaring war against 
her ; and she could comparatively inflict but very 
light injuries upon us, more especially when it 
would become the interest of her enemy to aid 
and abet us : whereas, we have chosen the greater 
evil of throwing down the gauntlet to that power 
which alone can injure us to a serious degree, 
without even the expectancy that her enemy can 
or will aid us in an honourable conflict with the 
greatest maritime power on earth! But this is 
not the worst of it ; we chain ourselves to the tri- 
umphal car of the great military despot of Europe, 
who, if he succeeds in his ambitious views of anni- 
hilating the power of Britain, will next turn his at- 
tention to the destruction of republicanism in 
America, as he has done in every part of the old 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 51 

world; — not a vestige of free representative go- 
vernment has he suffered to remain on the conti- 
nent of Europe, and what are we to expect from 
his gracious indulgence, when we enable him to 
prostrate the power of Britain. Our true policy 
was, to maintain, as far as in us lay, the balance of 
power between the contending rivals for the mas- 
tery of the world, instead of which we have made 
ourselves parties on the worst side of despotism, in 
this mighty conflict ! We have already adverted 
to the expediency of this measure, let us now con- 
sider of the fitness of the period of its promulga- 
tion: and here let me ask my fellow citizens, 
could it be more untimely ? Never since the re- 
volutionary war did we owe less to Britain ; indeed 
we scarcely owe her any thing at this moment, in 
consequence of the long continuance of our non- 
importation act, and the very low rate of exchange, 
which induced our fellow citizens to remit the full 
amount of their old debts, whilst they were allow- 
ed to ship away produce, both foreign and domes- 
tic, to an immense amount, to the ports of Great- 
Britain and Ireland, which now remains in the 
hands of the consignees in those countries; be- 



52 THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

sides the incalculable amount of property which 
we have scattered in different parts of the world, 
affording a grand and ready prey to the plunderers 
of the ocean : add to these weighty considerations, 
the melancholy fact that we are in no wise prepa- 
red for war, either military or maritime; and it 
was evidently far from Mr. Madison's real inten- 
tions to involve us in a war at this conjuncture, by 
the backwardness of preparation, in which he has 
purposely kept the country, but that he found his 
re-election to the presidency put to hazard by the 
imbecility of his measures, and the want of energy 
in his councils : thus, like a man suddenly aroused 
from a reverie, or awoke from the sleep of delusion, 
he inconsiderately plunges his country in all the 
horrors of war, from the unworthy motive of secu- 
ring his own continuance in power, without re- 
garding either the costs or the consequences! — 
What but such a motive could lead him, at such a 
time, to take such a step ? The chief of the British 
ministry, the prime supporter of the obnoxious or- 
ders in council, was removed by assassination ! a 
shock which must have at once disconcerted theft 
whole system of measures, and occasioned the 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 53 

formation of a new ministry, in which event, we 
have the most rational grounds for believing that 
the old whig party (the friends of an amicable ad- 
justment of the existing differences between that 
country and the United States) will have gained 
the ascendency in their national councils, and it 
would have been onr wisdom to have waited this 
most desirable result; but such forbearance did 
not suit the electioneering purpose of Mr. Madi- 
son! 

And now, Americans, we are involved in war 
precipitately, without the necessary preparations 
for carrying it on with credit or with success ! Our 
treasury drained, our munitions for war unprovi- 
ded ; and whilst we are recruiting men for the ser- 
vice and defence of the country, we have scarce a 
musket fit for use ready to put into their hands, or 
a blanket to protect them from the noxious damps 
of the night ; nay, not even camp equipage to ac- 
commodate an army, at a moment when they 
should have been crossing the Canada lines, to 
drive the enemy from our vicinage ! Almost eve- 
ry department of the general government is marked 



51 THK REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

by the incapacity and inertness of those to whose 
management our public concerns are committed ! 
the cabinet itself, with its head, deplorably conspi- 
cuous for contemptible intrigue, for want of ener- 
gy, and for puerile imbecility ; by the combination 
of which pernicious characteristics, our all of in- 
dependence, of liberty, and national prosperity, 
are staked on a declaration of war, in a state of 
unpreparedness, and without efficient characters 
in office, rightly to direct the physical force of the 
country, in maintaining so awful and arduous a 
struggle ! Fellow citizens, look at this genuine 
picture of your real situation, and be aroused to a 
sense of your danger : let neither party spirit, fa- 
vouritism, or prejudice warp your judgment, or 
paralize your exertions to remove from our na- 
tional councils, men who, if suffered to pursue this 
ruinous career much longer, will inevitably work 
the destruction of our independence, of free re- 
presentative government, in this, her last asylum 
upon the face of this great globe, and the happi- 
ness of the most favoured people who ever existed 
upon its surface ! It is in fact become indispensa- 
bly necessary to our safety, as an independent na- 




BE WITT CONTORT IBSQ^ 



THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 55 

tion, to place a man of energy and firmness, of 
wisdom and resource, at the head of the general 
government in such a momentous crisis: a man 
who will rid the public offices of incapacity, and 
select, as the coadjutors of his administration, men 
of tried ability and virtue, and who will enlist all 
the talents and integrity of the nation at a crisis 
which so imperiously demands their services : by 
such a man the destinies of our country may be 
conducted to triumph and to glory ! Our sister 
state, New-York, has offered us such a candidate 
for the next presidency, and every consideration 
of sapience and sound policy enjoins it upon us to 
embrace her patriotic proffer of the public servi- 
ces of one of the wisest and most magnanimous of 
all Columbia's sons, at a moment so portentous, 
and so big with her future destinies! In this 
eventful crisis, the finger of heaven points to De 
Witt Clinton, as the saviour of his country, under 
the good providence of the Most High. 

Finally, my fellow citizens, let me entreat you 
to hear the voice of wisdom and of true patriot- 
ism, ere it be too late : we are now in a state of 



5G THE REPUBLICAN CRISIS. 

war, under all the disadvantages above described, 
and if you leave the management of it to those 
who have placed us in this situation, under such 
unpropitious auspices, it will be a lingering war of 
disasters and humiliation, resulting in distant, but 
disgraceful peace: whereas, if you timely place a 
man of energy, of dignity, and firmness, in the ex- 
ecutive chair, he will, by the blessing of Almighty 
God, lead you to a victorious triumph over all dif- 
ficulties, and to a speedy and honourable peace. 

And now, ye inhabitants of my beloved coun- 
try, whether of native or foreign birth, my fellow 
citizens of these United States, whose fate is invol- 
ved in one common lot, " I call heaven and earth 
to record this day against you, that I have set be- 
fore you life and death, blessing and cursing, 
therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed 
may live." Deuteronomy, 30; 19. 



FINIS. 



A. FvUPERTI, 

BOOKBINDEI 

12 PARK ST. 

Between 
Lexington & Fayeti 









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